Re: Tinker's
dam

: : I've heard
that a tinker's dam is a small amount of some kind of paste that the tinker places
around the hole or crack in the pewter. The dam serves to keep the solder in one
place until the solder can fill the hole or crack. After the operation, the dam
useless and is thrown away.

: tinker n. A traveling mender of metal household
utensils
: "The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language"

: 1: In Knight's Dictionary of
Mechanics we find the interesting explanation that a tinker, having a hole
or the like to solder, erects a small barrier or dam of clay about the area so
that his molten solder will not flow off. The clay, once its usefulness is past,
in thrown aside.

: 2: ...tinkers, mostly itinerant, were a knavish, drunken
and blasphemous professional class, during the reigns of the Yorks, Tudors and
Stuarts. Blasphemy was their most characteristic failing and "damn" was probably
the most frequent and most abused word in their vocabulary. From their mouths
it (damn) became meaningless. Hence, to say, "I don't give a tinker's damn," merely
adds a little intensive force to one's indifference....

If someone doesn't give
a tinker's dam (or cuss) the they are reckoned to be completely indifferent to
the outcome of an event. Dam (note the lack of a terminal "n") is used today to
describe a structure for holding back water; so it was in the days of Tinkers.
They used to travel the country earning their livings mending pots and pans and
sharpening knives. They would mend the pots by filling the leak on the inside
with some clay and then repairing the outside with permanent material. When this
was done the clay was discarded. The clay stopper was the tinker's dam. The dam
was also known as a cuss. Both were worthless, hence the saying.